Which grading book to get?

I said I think you bought two very good books to start with. They will provide the information you need. That was the very first sentence in my post which addressed your previous post. I do think down the road, picking up other grading books is a good idea (which I elaborated on in more detail)...but for now, use what you just bought.

 

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Yes, I read that part. But the rest of your post about how different services would grade a mercury dime differently was basically something I had already said:

And my point of saying that was why should I choose one services opinion over another one? Can anyone really say one is better than the other? Different, yes, but better? As you said, it's all subjective. Right now I'm content with choosing one standard to go by, not 3 or 4 different ones. Their standards are just opinions really.

If the PCGS book was in the same price range as the others I wouldn't have an issue with buying it. But $60 vs. $12? Seriously, what makes it so much better that it goes for that much? Are the pictures extremely high quality?

 

All grading "standards" are just opinions, IMHO that is one of the problems with the hobby. There is no set guidelines. As for choosing different services opinion...it does matter. Neither PCGS or NGC is "better" across the board. Each grades different coin types differently, there are some types that PCGS is more strict with than NGC and some types that are the opposite. It is important to know the difference.

Nothing IMHO makes the PCGS book any better than any of the other books. It is a valuable resource like the others because it contains different information...that's all.

 

I don't know if I completely agree with that. I know a lot of people use it...and it is a very good book. But it seems like most of the people I talk too (including dealers) prefer the ANA guide.

 

While a photo might not be as good as seeing a actual coin that is graded, there is only one coin shop within an hours drive from my location and they don't have very many professionally graded coins. While photos might not be as good as studying actual coins it seems inconceivable that anybody would call them worthless. I don't know why they would print a book entitled "Grading Coins by Photographs" if pictures were worthless. But hey, I haven't gotten the book yet, so I guess I'll find out if the photos are of any value once I receive it. I can't imagine they wouldn't be extremely helpful though, especially when you don't have access to see actual coins.

 

all of em

 

Beginning to get the idea of why you can't learn to grade by using pictures ?

Depends on "How Many" pictures!
Seriously, these books can help you learn, maybe not get a job with a TPG immediately, but will help you with the basics!
Steve

 

+1! Absolutely agree with you.
Steve

 

If you are talking about MS coins I would agree with you, but I think they tend to do a pretty good job with coins graded AU or lower, especially XF and lower.

But they also fall down when used on MS coins. All the written descriptions for MS grades tend to be very vague in my opinion and all boil down to "MS-60 has no wear, an average strike, and many marks. MS-70 has no wear, a sharp strike, and no marks. Each of the grades in between have fewer marks and a better strike than the one below it, and more marks and weaker strike than the one above it."

The only way to learn grading of MS coins is practice and experience with actual coins in hand.

 

So really GDJMSP you aren't saying pictures are worthless, you're just saying a single picture is worthless. I flipped through a copy of Grading Coins by Photographs at a bookstore the other day, my own copy should be arriving in a day or two, and it seemed to also have good verbal descriptions of why a coin should be rated a particular grade based on characteristics of the obverse and reverse. I understand what you are saying about not relying completely on pictures now, but to call them worthless is going a little to far. Right now I don't collect MS coins, at least not expensive ones, only recent ones that are affordable. I mostly collect IHC at the moment and the best I can afford or atleast that I willing to pay for, is a F/VF grade and most of the older/rarer ones I have to settle for a G/VG. RIght now I just want to know that I'm getting an VF IHC if that is what I'm paying for. Determining weather its VF30 or VF40 might take me a couple of years, but even if I pay a VF40 price for a VF30 coin, at least I'm not losing a ton of money since most IHCs in that grade range are under $20 anyway. Now once I get all the more available ones and move onto the rarer ones hopefully my eye will be a little more developed.

I also just ordered "Coin Collecting for Dummies" on my nook and despite its condescending title it seems to be a decent book. It explains what it calls the big four factors: Luster, Eye appeal, Wear and Strike and how the combination of those four things determine the grade of the coin. It seems with the internet there would be a website available with thousands of pictures of coins that would show and explain the difference between grades. Much like the PCGS ipod app I just downloaded, only with dozens or even hundreds of examples of an MS69 Morgan, not just one. Is there such as site? Even if they charged a monthly fee I'd probably be willing to get a months subscription to check it out.

 

Doug is right. A single photo will do more harm than good by itself since every coin is unique but people want to focus on just one area of a coin usually. Buying a photo book is fine, but you need to do two things with it:

1. Read the written descriptions as well and use them predominantly, with the photos as examples. Always remember that the photo you have of a VF morgan is only ONE type of a VF morgan, one could put together 100 more VF's, and they all would look different.

2. GRADE! Practice makes perfect, look at HA or similar and blind grade coins over and over, learning from your mistakes. There is no substitute to actually doing it to make yourself familiar enough with the process. I have graded a lot, and still go through this for any series I am not familiar with, since each US series is unique in their grading. Luckily, for ancients, the series are nearly identical.

 

In my opinion, you can't learn to grade from books. Sure, you can get the basics, but to really learn to grade you have to look at graded coins -- lots and lots of them.

 

I wasn't intentionally suggesting dissent, Doug. I think we are in agreement on this topic.

The underlying point of my post was to suggest to someone new to coins that they will not truly learn much from the books, and thus shouldn't get too caught up in the false hope they are far down the path to grading enlightenment. That will ONLY come with the experience of seeing a multitude of coins in-hand.

Although not in this case, sometimes that's lost in these discussions, IMO.

A bit more bluntly, rather than buying multiple grading books -- many of which are conflicting and/or outdated -- a noob would be better served, IMO, to buy a few less books and spend the money on gas to go to a local coin show and see lots of graded coins. Sure, get the ANA guide and maybe the PCGS guide, but beyond that I think you are reaching a point of diminishing returns.

Perhaps we disagree on this finer point, and that's cool -- we all learn differently, and what has worked for me may not work for you or the OP.